How Asana Aligns Your Team and Increases Organizational Efficiency

How do you manage multiple projects across several teams? If your answer is “spreadsheets, of course”, then you might need to read on. With studies showing that the average employee spends most of their time on work about work (answering emails, following-up, etc.) it’s become evident that a more effective project management solution is needed. Enter Asana. 

Here are a few ways you can leverage the tool to increase your company’s efficiency and manage projects with ease. Keep in mind that the following features require a business or premium subscriptions. 

Organizing Projects with Portfolios

Forget using spreadsheets to track your team’s progress across different projects. Asana’s Portfolio feature allows you to organize all your projects in one place. This feature helps you categorize your projects and check on each of their statuses at a glance. Asana cleverly designed the portfolio screen in such a way that allows you to view the most pertinent information about your projects’ progress, such as the number of overdue tasks, status updates (manually done by project owner), task percentages, date ranges, and milestones achieved.  

To dig a little deeper, click on a project to expand it’s progress screen. The data drill down shows you the team’s workload and forecasts how long a task will take depending on your available resources. The Portfolios feature is a game changer because it saves you time managing your team, and helps you allocate more time to getting your own tasks done.  

Aligning Your Team around Shared Goals

A major issue project teams run into is the lack of alignment with organizational goals. While setting team goals is beneficial to getting everyday work done, the lack of connection to the company vision can lead to misalignment with other teams and a lack in motivation without a clear overarching goal. This is where Asana’s Goals feature comes in handy. 

Goals bridge the gap between daily processes and the overall organizational impact. The tool is fairly easy to use, allowing executives to set organizational objectives that team leads can then use to directly connect it with their teams’ short-term goals. The Goals feature then automatically tracks a team’s progress to organizational goals, therefore aligning everyone in the company with minimum effort. The best part is these goals and progress percentages are viewable to everyone in the company on every level, promoting transparency and clarity throughout the organization. Adopting this feature early on will save you the time and confusion that comes with pivoting your business should unexpected changes occur. A quick realignment will ensure work runs smoothly at high efficiency in the face of uncertainty. 

Set Clear Expectations with Tasks 

While this feature might seem basic at a first glance, the impact it has on you and your team's productivity is significant. Think about it, how many hours have you spent following up on each task, sending emails and waiting for status updates? The Tasks feature not only helps you assign tasks with minimum communication and effort, it also gives clarity on which tasks to be done first based on impending deadlines and high priority items. Once a task is done, your team can mark it as complete. No follow-up emails and no hassle. 

With many organizations transitioning to remote work and managing their  teams, Asana’s Tasks feature encourages trust and clarity among employees. With clear set due dates and expectations, you can leverage Tasks to cultivate a culture of responsibility and accountability throughout your organization. Only then will you notice the difference in the way you spend your time managing your team. 

Monitoring Productivity with Universal Reporting 

Universal Reporting is the answer to all your reporting needs. This tool is extremely detailed and offers more in depth information on overdue tasks, and the productivity of each individual team member.  

Universal Reporting is customizable, enabling you to visualize data and statuses the way that fits your organization’s needs. This feature is especially useful to track your team’s productivity and the tasks they’re working on. You can quickly spot performance issues, whether a team member is overloaded with tasks or is facing a problem completing them on time. This allows for swift decision-making and resolution, either by shifting the workload to other team members or hiring new resources to increase organizational efficiency. 

Check out Ditto’s very own CEO Marquis Murray’s YouTube review of this feature. 

Automating Workflows with Rules

Simply put, Rules is an automation feature that enables you to build sequences that move the work forward in a more systematic fashion. 

Rules can automatically assign tasks and move them along your workflow without you lifting a finger. If a task is marked complete, it can automatically assign itself to the next process based on the workflows you’ve created. This comes in handy with larger teams and iterative tasks across an organization. Imagine all the time and effort you can save by allowing smart algorithms to do the managing for you. Once again, this feature promotes dependability and trust in your organization. You can now even automate subtasks using rules. Watch this video to find out how!

Documenting and Managing Your Knowledge Base 

Finally, no organization can effectively function without clearly documented Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). The goal of SOPs is to allow an organization to get on the same page about every aspect of the business that relates to their position. These act like detailed guidelines to tasks and routine operations employees can access at any time. Having an updated knowledge base proves to be effective when the person with all the answers is unavailable or when you’re onboarding new employees.  

If you’re already using Asana, you can integrate your organization’s SOPs there too. Having everything in one place promotes clear communication and reduces the time spent searching for answers. With the project feature in Asana, you can organize your knowledge base under different categories and assign responsibilities for team leads to regularly document their processes. With customized SOPs for your organization, you can reallocate valuable time to strategy, problem-solving, and creative thinking.